Bulahdelah Bypass – Bulahdelah Upgrade – The Roads & Maritime Services (RMS, RTA) Pacific Highway 'upgrade', Bulahdelah section, is NOT a Bypass! It is NOT an upgrade! It is Extremely Dangerous!

A questions and answers page where visitors can ask questions and receive replies via the comment box.

The questions and answers will be added to the main section of this page and put into alphabetical order for ease of access to FAQs.

Where possible, relevant images/other reference material will be included.

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Note: Some of the following questions and answers have been abbreviated. More details are available in the original comments and replies at the foot of this page.

Aboriginal Heritage of and on the Alum Mountain

Q: I heard Peter Garrett on radio say that there was no important Aboriginal stuff in the path of that bypass. It was all up at the top of the mountain. So why are they kicking up such a fuss about nothing?

A: The Alum Mountain is, in itself, an Aboriginal Sacred Site. As Minister for Heritage, Mr. Garrett should be aware of the fact that to claim that only the top of this mountain is of Aboriginal significance is even more ludicrous than it would be to claim that a steeple is the only important part of a church.

All of the Aboriginal sites on the mountain which were identified by the RTA’s heritage consultants are in the path of the RTA’s Option E.

Aboriginal people who seek protection under sections of the Commonwealth and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 are not ‘kicking up a fuss’, they are trying to have their heritage protected under Commonwealth Law because the laws of the state in which they live have failed them.

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Note inserted 3-4-2013: On Thursday, 5th July, 2012, “Bulahdelah Mountain within the Great Lakes area” was formally declared as an Aboriginal Place.

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Bulahdelah Aboriginal Tent Embassy

Q: Is there still a tent embassy on the Alum Mountain?

A: Yes. However there haven’t been any campers there since Wednesday, 23rd December, 2009.

Bullying by RTA bureaucrats

Q: I’m from up north. Not saying where. When the RTA first began working on this project they were really nice. Citizens who stood up to them to protect koala habitat found that as the time got nearer for them to begin work they became thugs. What has been the experience in Bulahdelah?

A [outsourced]: Feigned ‘niceness’ on the part of RTA bureaucrats at the outset of RTA projects is a means to an end.

Bluntly: they didn’t ‘become’ thugs, as the time drew closer for their destructive activities to have physical impact, they revealed their true character.

RTA bureaucrats are not basically-well-intentioned human beings who don’t understand the effects of what they do. They deliberately set out to cause as much destruction and as much anguish as they can.

At Bulahdelah they ‘hit the jackpot’. Not only did they have a quite famous little mountain which is widely advertised in travel guides, its unique mining heritage, its unique Aboriginal heritage and its unique range of rare and threatened species to destroy, they had an unstable mountain on which numerous residences and two schools are located: there were bonuses in the presence of an existing landslide and the mountain’s consisting almost entirely of volcanic, acid sulphate rock and acid sulphate soils.

The RTA is committing genocide at Bulahdelah, with several groups being the targeted victims: children in mass schooling institutions, rural dwellers, road users and Aboriginal people.

And adding to their windfall is a largely backward community which, blindly trusting in the ‘nice’ ‘blokes’ from the RTA – or having pecuniary interests – and avidly rumour mongering instead of learning the facts of the matter, has, for the most part, done nothing whatsoever to protect children from these aggressors.

For the sceptic who doesn’t ‘get it’ that the RTA would deliberately cause harm: The RTA has now installed barbed wire fencing in rare and threatened species habitat on the Alum Mountain where defenceless bush creatures, including possums and wallabies abound.

Also for ‘the sceptic who [still] doesn’t “get it”’ as to the character of the RTA:-

The RTA retained employeeJeffrey (Jeff) Gilhamwho, in 1995, had been found guilty of the manslaughter of his own brother. This was no accidental killing, it was a particularly savage knife attack in which he stabbed his brother 14 times in the chest. [According to the article: Murderer in the family (The Australian 29-11-2001) Gilham ‘maintained’ that he stabbed his brother a total of 17 times. According to Wikibin: The autopsy showed that Gilham’s father was stabbed 29 times, his mother was stabbed 17 times and his brother was (also) stabbed 17 times.]

On 28 August, 1993, Gilham’s parents and his brother, Christopher, were stabbed to death and their house set on fire. ‘All three deceased had multiple grouped stab wounds. [Gilham’s father] Stephen had 16 grouped in the front of his chest, [his mother] Helen had 13 grouped in her back and Christopher had 14 grouped to the front chest’. Ref: Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions New South WalesAnnual Report 2008-2009.

‘On 05 April 1995, Gilham appeared before Mr Justice Abadee for the murder of his brother. The Crown accepted a plea of guilty to manslaughter in full discharge of the indictment. Gilham was placed on a good behaviour bond for a period of 5 years’. … ‘On 21 February 2006 an ex-officio indictment was filed in the Supreme Court, charging Gilham with the murder of his parents’. … Gilham was found guilty on both counts of murder on 28 November 2008. Ref: Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions New South WalesAnnual Report 2008-2009.

His uncle, Tony Gilham, who spent 13 years of his life trying to have him charged, has called his nephew a “creature”, “predator”, “supreme psychopath”, “consummate actor”, “murdering coward” and “cold-blooded killer”. Ref: The Sydney Morning Herald (March 14, 2009) articleOne angry man wants answers.

Jeffrey Gilham was a senior RTA engineer who worked on the Cross City Tunnel and F3.Ref: The Daily Telegraph (29-11-2008) articleFamily killer Jeffrey Gilham almost got away with murder.

On 28-8-2006, six months after being charged with murdering his parents, Gilham was the RTA contact for tenders to ‘Widen F3 – Sydney to Newcastle Freeway’.

On 28th August, 2006, Jeffrey Gilham was RTA contact for tenders for the widening of the F3. At that time, Gilham [as of 28-11-2008 a convicted murderer] had served a five year good behaviour bond for the (repeated knifing) manslaughter of his brother and had been charged with the murder of his parents.

Note: In June, 2012, Jeffrey Gilham was acquitted of the murders after Court of Criminal Appeal judges found that new scientific evidence undermined the crown case against him. Ref: The Sydney Morning Herald 16-7-2012 articleJeffrey Gilham’s uncle dies ‘burnt out’. Quote from the article: After years of pursuing his nephew Jeffrey Gilham, who he believed killed three of his beloved family members, Tony Gilham has died – “all burnt out from the fight”.

The RTA retained, for approximately two years, an employee ‘labelled a “high risk” by police senior command … in 2007’.

THE State Government was warned by police two years ago that a leading Hells Angels member was working in the RTA, with potential access to police files and people’s private details.

But it consistently ignored the alerts and [continued] to employ the man – who was present at the airport brawl which sparked the bikie wars – despite him being labelled a “high risk” by police senior command back in 2007.

The warnings are now part of a major cover-up by the State Government, which … refused to release the complete file on Derek Wainohu in defiance of NSW parliamentary rules.

But documents lodged with the Parliament, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, revealed emails from April and May 2007 which contained warnings about Mr Wainohu’s involvement with outlaw motorcycle gangs. …

One RTA document relating to inquiries about Mr Wainohu’s bikie links stated: “Risk, extremely high – they shot at babies and houses.”

More damaging for the Government is the discovery of emails sent between police Superintendent Dave Evans and RTA chief Les Wielinga in April 2007.

The email contents have been mysteriously removed from RTA files but it is understood it contained a warning to Mr Wielinga about Mr Wainohu having potential access to police files in his capacity as an employee of the RTA’s crash investigation and test laboratory.

Business Retention

Q: I’ve heard that a western option wouldn’t be good for business. Is that true?

A: With full interchanges to the north and south of Bulahdelah, use of the western Option A would provide road users with a ‘short cut’ both to and from Bulahdelah businesses via the current section of highway.

… it would take approximately 20 years for stopping traffic to reach pre-bypass levels in Bulahdelah.

Floodplain

Q: Was this option chosen because there is a floodplain to the west?

A:RTA documentation shows that although there is a floodplain to the west the south-eastern part of the floodplain, which is where part of the RTA’s intended route (Option E) would be located, is much broader and has ‘large wetlands and backwaters’. Ref: Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) – Biophysical – page 3.2

South-eastern floodplain in the area of the Option E bridge

The proposed bridge over the Myall River and embankment constructed across the [south-eastern] floodplain would cause an increase in flood levels.

The EIS image Flooding of the Myall and Crawford Rivers fails to show the full extent of flooding downstream from the confluence of said rivers. This, as per the above image with the survey marker, is where the Option E twin bridges and embankment would be located, decreasing flood flow velocity (i.e. increasing flood levels upstream).

Genocidists

Q: My interest is Australian Native Orchids. I often drive through Bulahdelah. A few years ago I attended an orchid excursion in the Alum Mountain Park. I often look at the RTA – Current Activities web page. At some stage the NPWS will have to answer for what is being done there.

I know they are killing off native orchids and their habitat and that’s obviously ecocide but how can the Current Activities web page accuse bulldozer drivers of causing genocide? I don’t see that they are killing people.

A: Your input is appreciated, Greg. However, the RTA – Current Activities page does not use the expressions ‘causing genocide’ or ‘killing people’.

The navvies you specifically mentioned are aiding the RTA’s genocide at Bulahdelah. They are acting in ‘complicity in genocide’. They are punishable under Article 3(e) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As is the case with all who are involved in assisting the RTA with Option E, they are Genocidists.

As per Article 3(c) and Article 4 of said Convention, acts of ‘direct and public incitement to commit genocide’ are also punishable. Private individuals are not exempt. Examples of private individuals inciting the RTA to commit genocide can be found at the Perpetrators with Pecuniary/Conflict of Interest page of this site.

Articles 1 to 4 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide [bold and red typeface added for clarification of the Bulahdelah situation and your query]:-

Article 1
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article 2
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

To Aboriginal people of cultural beliefs the Alum Mountain is, in itself, a Sacred Site. As Minister for Heritage, Mr. Garrett should be aware of the fact that to claim that only the top of this mountain is of Aboriginal significance is even more ludicrous than it would be to claim that a steeple is the only important part of a church.

All of the Aboriginal sites on the mountain which were identified by the RTA’s heritage consultants are in the path of the RTA’s Option E.

From page 21 of the RTA document: Bulahdelah Upgrade of The [sic] Pacific Highway Submissions Report:-

‘2.4.5 Aboriginal Heritage [paragraphs added]

Nine Aboriginal sites have been identified within or immediately adjacent to areas where construction of the proposed Upgrade would occur. These include five scatters of stone artefacts, two scarred trees and two isolated finds.

Eight areas were also identified which may potentially contain archaeological deposits’.

Additional sites which the RTA’s heritage consultants failed to identify/document would also be desecrated by Option E. Of these, the RTA has already destroyed two: the Sacred Guardian- Healing-Tree and the Sacred Healing Stream Cultural Usage Site.

Aboriginal people who seek protection under sections of the Commonwealth and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 are not ‘kicking up a fuss’, they are trying to have their heritage protected under Commonwealth Law because the laws of the state in which they live have failed them.

With full interchanges to the north and south of Bulahdelah, use of the western Option A would provide road users with a ‘short cut’ both to and from Bulahdelah businesses via the current section of highway.

Access to townships which have been ‘passed by’ is not from the new sections of roadway, it is from their interchanges.

As the following RTA documentation shows, although there is a floodplain to the west, the south-eastern part of the floodplain, which is where part of the RTA’s intended route (Option E) would be located is much broader and has ‘large wetlands and backwaters’.

From the Main Volume of the Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement – Biophysical – page 3.2:-

… The Myall and Crawford Rivers have formed narrow alluvial plains to the north-west and south-west of Bulahdelah.

The plain becomes much broader to the south-east of Bulahdelah and incorporates large wetlands and backwaters as the Myall River flows towards the Bombah Broadwater. …

For a photograph of the RTA’s intended bridge area in flood please refer to the main section of this page.

I’m from up north. Not saying where. When the RTA first began working on this project they were really nice. Citizens who stood up to them to protect koala habitat found that as the time got nearer for them to begin work they became thugs. What has been the experience in Bulahdelah?

Feigned ‘niceness’ on the part of RTA bureaucrats at the outset of RTA projects is a means to an end.

Bluntly: they didn’t ‘become’ thugs, as the time drew closer for their destructive activities to have physical impact, they revealed their true character.

RTA bureaucrats are not basically-well-intentioned human beings who don’t understand the effects of what they do. They deliberately set out to cause as much destruction and as much anguish as they can.

At Bulahdelah they ‘hit the jackpot’. Not only did they have a quite famous little mountain which is widely advertised in travel guides, its unique mining heritage, its unique Aboriginal heritage and its unique range of rare and threatened species to destroy, they had an unstable mountain on which numerous residences and two schools are located: there were bonuses in the presence of an existing landslide and the mountain’s consisting almost entirely of volcanic, acid sulphate rock and acid sulphate soils.

The RTA is committing genocide at Bulahdelah, with several groups being the targeted victims: children in mass schooling institutions, rural dwellers, road users and Aboriginal people.

And adding to their windfall is a largely backward community which, blindly trusting in the ‘nice’ ‘blokes’ from the RTA – or having pecuniary interests – and avidly rumour mongering instead of learning the facts of the matter, has, for the most part, done nothing whatsoever to protect children from these aggressors.

For the sceptic who doesn’t ‘get it’ that the RTA would deliberately cause harm: The RTA has now installed barbed wire fencing in rare and threatened species habitat on the Alum Mountain where defenceless bush creatures, including possums and wallabies abound.

My interest is Australian Native Orchids. I often drive through Bulahdelah. A few years ago I attended an orchid excursion in the Alum Mountain Park. I often look at the RTA – Current Activities web page. At some stage the NPWS will have to answer for what is being done there.

I know they are killing off native orchids and their habitat and that’s obviously ecocide but how can the Current Activities web page accuse bulldozer drivers of causing genocide? I don’t see that they are killing people.

The navvies you specifically mentioned are aiding the RTA’s genocide at Bulahdelah. They are acting in ‘complicity in genocide’. They are punishable under Article 3(e) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As is the case with all who are involved in assisting the RTA with Option E, they are Genocidists.

As per Article 3(c) and Article 4 of said Convention, acts of ‘direct and public incitement to commit genocide’ are also punishable. Private individuals are not exempt. Examples of private individuals inciting the RTA to commit genocide can be found at the Perpetrators with Pecuniary/Conflict of Interest page of this site.

Articles 1 to 4 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide [bold typeface added for clarification of the Bulahdelah situation and your query]:-

Article 1
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article 2
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

• (a) Killing members of the group;
• (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.